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Server Load Balancer:Quotas and Limits

Last Updated:Mar 19, 2026

This topic describes the resource quotas, limits, and quota management methods for Application Load Balancer (ALB).

Limits

These are hard limits that cannot be increased.

Listener Limits

Resource

Feature version

Default Limit

Maximum number of access control policy groups that can be associated with a listener

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

3

Maximum number of access control entries that can be associated with a listener

Basic

300

Standard/WAF-enabled

500

Forwarding Rule Limits

Resource

Feature version

Default Limit

Maximum number of actions that can be added to a forwarding rule

Basic

3

Standard/WAF-enabled

5

Maximum number of match conditions that can be added to a forwarding rule

Basic

5

Standard/WAF-enabled

10

Maximum number of wildcard entries that can be added to a forwarding rule

Basic

5

Standard/WAF-enabled

10

Server Group Limits

Resource

Feature Version

Default Limit

Maximum number of backend servers (IP addresses and ports) that can be added to a server group

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

1,000

Access Control and Security Policy Limits

Resource

Edition

Default Limit

Maximum number of listeners that can be associated with an access control policy group

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

50

Maximum number of entries that can be added to an access control policy group

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

500

Maximum number of listeners that can be associated with a custom security policy

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

10

Maximum number of access control entries that can be associated with an ALB instance

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

800

Region Limits

Resource

Edition

Default Limit

Maximum number of custom security policies supported in a region

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

50

Maximum number of health check templates supported in a region

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

50

Maximum number of access control policy groups supported in a region

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

1,000

Maximum number of server groups supported in a region

Basic/Standard/WAF-enabled

3,000

Other limitations

The following limitations apply only to upgraded ALB instances. ALB instances that have not been upgraded are not affected.

In each zone of an ALB instance, the instance supports up to 250,000 concurrent connections to each backend server. If the number of concurrent connections exceeds this limit, new connections fail due to port exhaustion.

  • To ensure this elastic capability, we recommend that you perform the following operations:

    • Reserve at least 8 IP addresses in each vSwitch where the ALB instance is deployed, and pre-authorize these vSwitch CIDR blocks.

    • Reserve enough quota for ALB managed security group rules in the security group rule quota for an ECS instance or Elastic Network Interface (ENI).

      The ALB-managed security group automatically adds rules with a priority of 1 to allow traffic from local IP addresses. The number of security group rules associated with an ALB instance must meet the following requirement: Number of ALB-managed security group rules + Number of custom security group rules associated with the ALB ≤ Security group rule quota for the ECS instance (or ENI). For more information, see ALB security group limits.

  • To prevent the number of concurrent connections from exceeding the limit, you can add more servers or IP addresses to the server group. This distributes connection requests across multiple backend servers or IP addresses and reduces the load on a single server or IP address.

General Quotas

  • If a resource is associated with multiple objects, the resource is counted against the quota of each object. For example, if the same backend server is associated with multiple listeners and forwarding rules under the same ALB instance, the backend server is counted multiple times when the quota usage for Maximum number of backend servers that can be added to an ALB instance is calculated.

  • The default quota values in this topic are for reference only. The actual values in the console prevail.

Instance Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum Increase

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_loadbalancers_num

Maximum number of ALB instances supported in each region under an Alibaba Cloud account

60

150

Yes

Basic EditionALB Instance Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum Increase

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_loadbalancer_certificates_num_basic_edition

Maximum number of additional certificates that can be added to an ALB instance (excluding default certificates)

10

150

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_rules_num_basic_edition

Maximum number of forwarding rules that can be added to an ALB instance (excluding default rules)

40

100

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_servers_num_basic_edition

Maximum number of backend servers that can be added to an ALB instance

200

400

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_listeners_num_basic_edition

Maximum number of listeners that can be added to an ALB instance

50

80

Yes

Standard EditionALB Instance Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum Increase

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_loadbalancer_certificates_num_standard_edition

Maximum number of additional certificates that can be added to an ALB instance (excluding default certificates)

25

300

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_rules_num_standard_edition

Maximum number of forwarding rules that can be added to an ALB instance (excluding default rules)

100

200

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_servers_num_standard_edition

Maximum number of backend servers that can be added to an ALB instance

1,000

1,500

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_listeners_num_standard_edition

Maximum number of listeners that can be added to an ALB instance

50

100

Yes

WAF-enabledALB Instance Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum Increase

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_loadbalancer_certificates_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Maximum number of additional certificates that can be added to an ALB instance (excluding default certificates)

25

300

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_rules_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Maximum number of forwarding rules that can be added to an ALB instance (excluding default rules)

100

200

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_servers_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Maximum number of backend servers that can be added to an ALB instance

1,000

1,500

Yes

alb_quota_loadbalancer_listeners_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Maximum number of listeners that can be added to an ALB instance

50

100

Yes

Listener Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum limit increased to

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_max_request_timeout

Maximum connection request timeout when creating a listener

600 seconds

3600 seconds

Yes

alb_quota_max_idle_timeout

Maximum idle connection timeout when creating a listener

600 seconds

3600 seconds

Yes

For instances that are upgraded as described in the Application Load Balancer (ALB) Instance Upgrade Announcement, you can increase the alb_quota_max_request_timeout and alb_quota_max_idle_timeout quotas to a maximum of 3,600 seconds. For instances that have not been upgraded, the maximum value is 900 seconds.

Server Group Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum Increase

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_server_added_num

Maximum number of times a backend server (IP address) can be added to an ALB backend server group

200 times

300

Yes

alb_quota_servergroup_attached_num

Maximum number of times a server group can be associated with ALB listeners and forwarding rules

50 times

100 times

Yes

alb_quota_server_groups_weight

Maximum weight that can be configured for a single server group when forwarding rules forward traffic to it

100

10,000

Contact your account manager

Resource Reservation Quotas

Quota Name

Description

Default Value

Maximum supported value increased to

Can Be Applied For

alb_quota_reserved_capacity_units_per_loadbalancer

Maximum resource reservation LCU capacity configurable for each ALB instance

5,000

-

Contact your account manager

alb_quota_reserved_capacity_units_per_region

Maximum LCU capacity that can be reserved per region

20,000

-

Contact your account manager

API Rate Limits

You can view the API rate limits for ALB API operations in the Quota Center.

Privilege Quotas

Privilege quota items have a default value of 0, which means the feature is unavailable by default. To use these features, you must obtain authorization from Alibaba Cloud.

Quota ID

Description

Application Portal

slb_user_visible_gray_label/ip_target_cidr_not_limited

IP-type server groups without CIDR block restrictions

Application Portal

slb_user_visible_gray_label/alb_extensible_edition

ALB Extension Edition

Application Portal

slb_user_visible_gray_label/alb_resource_reservation

ALB Resource Reservation

Application Portal

slb_user_visible_gray_label/support_sm_certificate

ALB support for SM certificates

Application Portal

Manage Quotas

You can manage ALB quotas using one of the following methods:

  • Quota Center: Use this method to manage quotas for multiple Alibaba Cloud services in a centralized manner.

  • Server Load Balancer console quota management page: Use this method to manage only ALB quotas.

View Quotas

Quota Center

  1. Log on to the Quota Center console. In the navigation pane on the left, click Product List. Then, select the quota type, such as General Quotas, API Rate Limits, or Privilege Quotas.

  2. On the Product List page, click Application Load Balancer ALB in the Network section to view the quota information.

Server Load Balancer Console

  1. Log on to the quota management page of the Server Load Balancer console and set the Product parameter to Application Load Balancer ALB.

  2. Select the quota type, such as General Quotas, API Rate Limits, or Privilege Quotas, to view the corresponding quota information.

Increase Quotas

Quota Center

  1. Log on to the Quota Center console. In the navigation pane on the left, click Product List. Select the quota type, such as General Quotas or Privilege Quotas. Then, click Application Load Balancer ALB in the Network section.

  2. Find the target quota. In the Actions column, click Apply.

  3. In the dialog box that appears, enter the required information and click Confirm Adjustment.

    Quota increase requests are reviewed by the technical support team of the corresponding cloud product. We recommend that you specify a reasonable value and provide a detailed reason for your request. You will be notified of the approval result by text message and email.

Server Load Balancer Console

  1. Log on to the quota management page of the Server Load Balancer console and set the Product parameter to Application Load Balancer ALB.

  2. Select the quota type, such as General Quotas or Privilege Quotas. Find the target quota. In the Actions column, click Apply.

  3. In the dialog box that appears, enter the required information and click Confirm Adjustment.

    Quota increase requests are reviewed by the technical support team of the corresponding cloud product. We recommend that you specify a reasonable value and provide a detailed reason for your request. You will be notified of the approval result by text message and email.

Create a quota alert

You can create alerts for some general quota items of Application Load Balancer (ALB). When your quota usage reaches a preset threshold, the system sends an alert notification. This helps you request a quota increase promptly.

Quota items that support alerts for ALB

Category

Quota Name

Quota Description

Additional certificates

alb_quota_loadbalancer_certificates_num_basic_edition

Number of additional certificates for each ALB instance (Basic Edition). The default certificate is not included.

alb_quota_loadbalancer_certificates_num_standard_edition

Number of additional certificates for each ALB instance (Standard Edition). The default certificate is not included.

alb_quota_loadbalancer_certificates_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Number of additional certificates for each ALB instance (WAF-enabled Edition). The default certificate is not included.

Forwarding rules

alb_quota_loadbalancer_rules_num_basic_edition

Number of forwarding rules that can be added to each ALB instance (Basic Edition). The default rule is not included.

alb_quota_loadbalancer_rules_num_standard_edition

Number of forwarding rules that can be added to each ALB instance (Standard Edition). The default rule is not included.

alb_quota_loadbalancer_rules_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Number of forwarding rules that can be added to each ALB instance (WAF-enabled Edition). The default rule is not included.

Backend servers

alb_quota_loadbalancer_servers_num_basic_edition

Number of servers that can be added to each ALB instance (Basic Edition).

alb_quota_loadbalancer_servers_num_standard_edition

Number of servers that can be added to each ALB instance (Standard Edition).

alb_quota_loadbalancer_servers_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Number of servers that can be added to each ALB instance (WAF-enabled Edition).

Listener

alb_quota_loadbalancer_listeners_num_basic_edition

Number of listeners for each ALB instance (Basic Edition).

alb_quota_loadbalancer_listeners_num_standard_edition

Number of listeners for each ALB instance (Standard Edition).

alb_quota_loadbalancer_listeners_num_standardwithwaf_edition

Number of listeners for each ALB instance (WAF-enabled Edition).

Server groups

alb_quota_servergroup_attached_num

Number of times each server group can be associated with an ALB listener or forwarding rule.

Backend server (IP)

alb_quota_server_added_num

Number of times a backend server (IP) can be added to an ALB backend server group.

Region

alb_quota_loadbalancers_num

Number of ALB instances supported in each region.

Quota Center

  1. Log on to the Quota Center console. In the navigation pane on the left, click Product List, select General quotas, and click Application Load Balancer ALB in the Networking section.

  2. Find the target quota item and click Create Alert in the Actions column.

  3. On the Create Alert Rule page, configure the parameters for the quota alert, and then click Confirm. For more information, see Create a general quota alert.

Server Load Balancer console

  1. Log on to the Quota Management page in the Server Load Balancer console, and set the Product parameter to Application Load Balancer (ALB).

  2. Set the Quota Type to General Quota. Find the target quota item and click Create Alert in the Actions column.

  3. On the Create Alert Rule page, configure the parameters for the quota alert, and then click Confirm. For more information, see Create a general quota alert.

Create a quota template

Make sure that

Quota Center

  1. Log on to the Quota Center console. In the navigation pane on the left, click Product List. Select General Quotas or Privilege Quotas as the quota type. In the Networking section, click Application Load Balancer ALB.

  2. Find the target quota. In the Actions column, click Add to Quota Template.

  3. In the Add to Quota Template dialog box, configure the settings. Then click OK.

Server Load Balancer console

  1. Log on to the quota management page in the Server Load Balancer console. Set the Product parameter to Application Load Balancer ALB.

  2. Select General Quotas or Privilege Quotas as the quota type. Find the target quota. In the Actions column, click Add to Quota Template.

  3. In the Add to Quota Template dialog box, configure the settings. Then click OK.